Social Emotional Learning Programme Efficacy and Long-Term Psychosocial Outcomes Among Primary School Children in Rural North Central Nigeria

This study evaluates the efficacy of a structured social emotional learning programme and tracks its long-term psychosocial outcomes among primary school children in rural North Central Nigeria, addressing a critical gap in the evidence base for school-based social emotional learning in sub-Saharan Africa. Social emotional learning programmes have demonstrated robust positive effects on well-being, academic achievement, and social competence in Western school systems, but rigorous randomised controlled evidence from rural African contexts, where social ecologies and relational norms differ substantially, is absent. The study employs a cluster randomised controlled trial design across 24 rural primary schools in Benue, Nasarawa, and Niger States, involving 720 children in Primary 2 to 4 at baseline with follow-up at 12, 24, and 36 months. The culturally adapted social emotional learning curriculum, developed through community co-design processes in each state, includes emotion recognition, empathy development, conflict resolution, and collective problem-solving modules delivered by trained teachers over one academic year. Outcome measures include the Social Skills Rating System, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, the Children's Hope Scale, and academic achievement tests. Primary analysis uses intention-to-treat mixed model repeated measures analysis. Results at 36-month follow-up demonstrate significant, sustained programme effects on social competence, emotional regulation, hope, and academic achievement in the intervention schools. Teacher implementation fidelity moderates outcome strength, highlighting the centrality of implementation support. This study provides the most rigorous long-term evidence on social emotional learning in rural African primary schools to date. Keywords: social emotional learning, rural primary schools, randomised controlled trial, North Central Nigeria, psychosocial outcomes.